June 11, 2008

The state of the prostate in Massachusetts is "fair"

Massachusetts gets a "C+" from the National Prostate Cancer Coalition in its 2008 report card, but only 10 states got better grades. (No one got an "A"; Wisconsin got an "F".) Massachusetts finished near the top in terms of the percentage of men who get screened for the disease and near the bottom in terms of the mortality rate from the disease, but we lost points for not (yet) having a state law requiring insurance companies to cover screens.

Our worst category was "support of important legislation and initiatives by the Congressional delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate," but practically everyone got lousy grades for that (New York was the only one above a "C"). The NPCA wanted not only increased spending for prostate cancer screening and research, but also a new "Office of Men's Health" at the Department of Health and Human Services; it got very little of what it asked for from Congress.

Evidently, the condition of our prostates won't warrant an "A" until Washington does something about the federal deficit.